360 Media Brands: Covering the Bases

In their ongoing quest for greater market penetration, many marketers have caught the 360 bug, which is characterized by a fervent desire for cross-platform, integrated brand exposure. “When people talk about 360 advertising, what they’re often talking about is a one-stop shop for a given marketing initiative,” says Televisa Publishing group publisher David Taggart. In essence, the term refers to comprehensive, multi-platform message delivery, as through print, online, TV, radio, direct mail, etc. “All of our mediums are built to interact in a 360 fashion and this has always been our business model and the dreams of all of our advertisers – truly integrated brand messaging,” says Cynthia Nelson, COO of Hispanic parenting media company Todobebé Inc. “For example, customers may participate in TV with a brand integration and message and simultaneously have an advertorial online and a print advertisement that is adjacent to an article on the same topic.”

In fact, Todobebé is in the midst of a massive integrated marketing effort. The company is launching a multi-platform effort in support of its “Viva la Familia Fiestas,” a one-day event for Hispanic families, to be held twice a year.

On the day of the first event, April 26, 10,000 celebrating moms will hold simultaneous parties for over 100,000 of their friends and family members. Speaking to the importance of the live event aspect of the campaign, Todobebé’s COO Cynthia Nelson tells Portada, “Celebrations with Hispanic families are clearly important in all aspects of life, especially when it involves their babies and children. The ‘Viva la Familia fiestas’ are a natural extension of what is already happening in thousands of Hispanic homes in every city on any given weekend. Hispanics tend to get together more often as a family. ‘Viva la Familia’ gives them another reason to celebrate together, win prizes, and sample and learn about new products with their friends and family.”
Todobebé has teamed up with media research company Nielsen to help measure attendance. The company will be conducting an on-line survey of the 10,000 hosts of the party, using that survey to gather the attendance at the parties along with asking a number of other qualitative and attitudinal questions of the hosts. “This is a media plan that runs 60 days, two times a year and reaches 30 million impressions each time via TV, radio, online and direct mail,” says Nelson. “It is the reason that we can reach millions of consumers and potential buyers and brand evangelists for our clients’ products.” So far, P&G’s Pampers brand has signed on as an event sponsor, with several more to follow.

“Our direct marketing component is a specially branded door hanger delivered to 500k consumers in the top Hispanic DMA’s. We are able to watch “live” as these doorhangers are being delivered via a virtual screen. This allows us to monitor at the street level which households are being delivered to in exactly what neighborhoods. The demographic is high Hispanic DMA’s which means Spanish speaking families with children in the home,” reports Nelson.

En Vivo…

ESPN Deportes has an interactive live event that it calls En Vivo. This year, En Vivo kicked-off at the Super Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona. Central to the En Vivo event is the enormous 60’x 90’ inflatable stadium, where visitors participate in various interactive games and activities that serve to reinforce ESPN’s branding efforts, while entertaining participants. ESPN is currently in talks with auto, apparel and airline companies regarding sponsorship of the En Vivo Tour, which will ultimately span nine U.S. cities following the Super Bowl event. The sponsorship structure is tiered. Past sponsors have included companies like Jeep and Sauza.

Marketing Director Maribel Viteri comments, “If you think of it from a sponsor’s perspective, it’s really a great vehicle. ESPN Deportes is offering the 360 exposure that is truly comprehensive. Not a lot of other brands offer that.” The 9-stop tour began in Miami at the Calle Ocho Festival in mid-March. Other cities on the tour include Houston, Dallas and New York.

Music to their ears…

Of course, one sure way to win the hearts and minds of consumers—particularly younger ones—is through music. “The heart of our operation is music-related content. Our 360 offering is characterized by our three vehicles,” says Batanga’s CMO Rick Marroquín. “We have our music-rooted social network, our two magazines—Latino University and Batanga Latin Music—and our live events.” Batanga’s social network has grown steadily, and in late December the company announced that with 3.4 million unique visitors per month, it is now the largest website in the U.S. Hispanic space.

Batanga’s print presence is also rather well-established. Latino University has a distribution of 200K, and is published six times a year in English, with the three Fall editions and three Spring editions. The company’s other Hispanic publication is Batanga Latin Music, also distributed six times a year, is published in English, with a distribution of 50,000 copies.

Batanga is also becoming increasingly involved in live events. In November/December of 2007, the company orchestrated the Batanga Music Tour. The tour covered 22 cities across the country and was aimed at raising brand awareness for the company. “We wanted to prove the viability of such a venture, so we sponsored it ourselves,” says Marroquín. Batanga also embarked on a year-long college tour, which Verizon sponsored, gaining exposure not just at the live events, but also in Batanga’s print and online properties. GMAC Financial services also sponsored the tour.

From here to affinity…

Televisa Publishing, while also running these types of integrated advertising programs, favors affinity-based programs, where there is a clear correlation between the product being advertised, the media vehicle that in which it is being presented, and the consumer engaging with that media. The result is that the advertised product pulls customers toward it through their affinity with the media vehicle, whereas traditional advertising schemes tend to push their products on consumers. These initiatives also have practical advantages from a planning standpoint. As David Taggart, general manager and group publisher of Televisa Publishing, puts it, “One of the big advantages of the affinity packages is the streamlined decision-making process that is involved. While we can also put together a program that incorporates our different platforms, we find that the proposal then goes to different people for approval and modifications, etc, whereas with our pre-packaged affinity programs, the mix is set, and it often takes the approval of just one agency person or senior client rep.”

National Geographic en Español, which is published by Televisa Publishing and enjoys a 200,000-copy distribution, recently held what it called its “Concurso Internacional de Fotografia,” or “International Photography Contest.” The contest was supported by various events, TV spots with National Geographic’s cable partners, and call-to-action print ads. A micro-site was also developed for the effort at: http://www.ngfoto.net.

According to Taggart, the multi-platform promotion of the contest has resulted in exponential increases in participation. Now in its fifth year, the contest brought in over 15,000 submissions, whereas earlier efforts with less exposure across platforms garnered just hundreds of submissions. “From a sponsor’s perspective, this kind of participation is really important,” says Taggart. “It leverages our visitors’ affinity with the project in a way that can very tangibly drive sales and create brand awareness.”

The footprint of this effort was assured not only by the fact that it accepted submissions from eight regions—Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia/Ecuador, Venezuela, Central America, Puerto Rico and Mexico— but also because awards ceremonies were held in each region.

HP benefited from sole sponsorship of the event and had animated Spanish-language banners that linked to their Spanish language Web destination. The company’s Spanish-language site is quite rich, with separate iterations for many Latin American countries, including dialects for specific countries.

360 Marketing: Fact or Fiction?

With all of the buzz surrounding 360 advertising strategy, it is natural to assume that the approach is something new, although in reality advertisers have been taking advantage of integrated marketing since there has been media to integrate. As Hispanic print becomes more consolidated, with companies like Impremedia expanding their national footprint, certain media properties, including Batanga, Todobebé, and Televisa Publishing, among others, are becoming omnipresent across platforms and are offering advertisers more integrated messaging solutions. So, while the “360 approach” is nothing new, per se, there are certainly more touch-points within the radius of available options for advertisers to choose from.

Pros and cons of 360 advertising

Pros

Cons

Multiple touch-points with which to connect with the consumer

Some channels may not be reaching the intended target, and are therefore wasted.

Tends to increase response rate exponentially

Hard to measure the effectiveness of some channels.

Opportunity for a holistic approach that integrates all advertising/marketing messages

Multiplatform is often developed in silos (particularly in the Hispanic market)

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